Wednesday, 11 April 2007

OK, someone has to explain the whole permanent employee deal to me. I have been contracting, beaten, crucified and spat on for so long that I just do not get the need for a cuddle from my manager.

Managers to me are like boxing refs. They stand between those of us who care and the others. They blow the whistle and reprimand you when you head butt the other dude and they tell you when to go back to your corner - "Damana, he's bleeding so just let it go now". Boxing refs DO NOT take you in to a side room and tell you that your employer loves you and that you are a worthwhile human being. Of course you are or they fire you.

I know when I am going ok at work because my pass still works.

It is a geeks world at the moment but in all honesty, the state of the market doesn't matter if you are an anti-social, weird nutter. Just do your job, speak up when you know you should, don't take the whole thing personally and remember that you do the work to afford the play.

As for cuddles, I'll take a direct deposit... and darling, I do not get out of bed for less than 4 peanuts a day.

3 comments:

I guess it all depends on your own personality. People who are unsure of themselves probably enjoy their "cuddles". I do like and agree with your boxing ref analogy. I like to think of my manager as my battering ram for removing impediments at work....after having a go myself of course

About

I am a nomad. I travel a lot for work and for fun. For the last 20 years, I have been building big web applications that business wants and users like to use. I've worked for federal gov, large media organisations, banks and a couple of startups in the areas of mobile technology and vision tracking. I was at ThoughtWorks for a while being agile and having fun as a polyglot programmer. Then I was a Developer Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft where I was the Asia Pacific ASP.NET MVC Lead, an agile software development coach and a languages and integration specialist.
For a while, I was playing in .gov.au as an Architect building Voice Authentication for Aussie citizens. My further adventures see me delivering more large systems for gov.au. Now I'm living in Seattle and working for a large book store. I love cats, cocktails and cooking. People are more important than things. Ideas drive the world.
I do not speak for my employer. All opinions are my own.